"Is it possible to pick 50 of the best nonfiction books ever? Of course not! But I've given it a try. In this list I narrowed down the topic a bit by focusing on books within the last 100 years or so, including some very contemporary ones, and I kept just a few genres: biography, memoir, history, social sciences, culture, science, and nature. There are so many more genres I'm leaving out, including travel, self-help, religion/spirituality, business, philosophy, criticism, and more. And of course there are wonderful works of nonfiction written before the twentieth century. Nonfiction is a VAST field.
I could easily write a list of the 1,000 best nonfiction books, but that would be overwhelming for everybody! Hopefully you will find some books you love here and some books you haven't read and might want to try."